Halloween festivities!

I love when it's time to start all the holiday traditions!

A couple weeks ago we had our Pumpkin carving party with Tim's family. This year we thought it would be fun to see everyone in their costumes, you gotta wear them as much as possible right? :) We're glad they could come, it was so much fun! Great job on the pumpkins everyone, love them!
How fun and creative are those Bug exterminator costumes?! Love it!

Our Spooky Menu: (these are just the things I made, Lisa and Kristen brought some yummy fruit and salad (thank you!)

Then last night we had our 'Annual Halloween Party' for my family. Costumes are always required of course. Some may hate me for that, but the fun of Halloween is getting to dress up! :) I love hosting parties, and one year my house (inside and out) is going to be decked out in Halloween in every nook n' cranny. haha Tim probably thinks I have more than enough decorations, but he hasn't thought about the front yard... heheh :)

With the help of everyone, we had a yummy menu planned, I didn't take pictures because I'm going to share those recipes on their own post....you know what that means, they're that good. :)

Everyone's costumes- they all turned out great, way ta go y'all! This was the best picture I could get of Kuzco-puppies are not very cooperative. You should have seen Krista and I try to put his costume on. :)
I keep forgetting to have everyone vote for costume awards, I think it's fun to do, so I'm just gonna do it this time. :)

Funniest: Obama on Vacation- haha :), Hawaiian Hippies and NERD.
Scariest: Vampire, Head Devil & Soldier ;)
Best Couple: Woody & Jessie- Great job making those Jen!
Best Group: Pac Man Family- Also, great job making those Delaina!
Best Original: Bee, Ladybug, Devil (Marcie), Strawberry
Prettiest: Aphrodite, Flapper Girl and Fairy
Most Creative: Super 'T's (Trent and Truman...get it? :) and Jamaican
Cutest: sorry, have to be biased on this one...Little Witch and Little Devil. :)
ok....I'll make one for me too :) - Most weird and funky: Head Witch :) :)
EVERYONE'S was AWESOME!! There's many that fit into several of those categories.

One of my bestest friends, whom just returned home from Air Force training, came and it was SO good to see her. It's been 5 months, way too long! So technically her uniform is not a costume, but I let it slide...just this once ;)
Tim's aunt came up with some fun minute-to-win-it games at Bear Lake and I thought they were so fun I wanted to do them at this party. I think everyone had fun....they sure did good!
I can't get over those teeth, Paul. haha
Thanks for coming everyone, it wouldn't have been a party without you! I'm already looking forward to next year's party! :)
Anyone else have fun traditions they do for the holidays? I love them! Bring on the next holiday!

Freebie Halloween Digi Kit!

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Happy Halloween!! I just barely got this kit done in time, whew. Here's to my favorite, pumpkins, and to one of my very favorite holidays! Hope you enjoy the kit!

For Personal use only!

Thanks! :)

Spooky Alchemy potion bottles

I thought these looked like a fun project and would add the perfect spooky touch to my mantle.

I downloaded labels from THIS site, there's some cool ones HERE too.

I didn't have a color printer or tan/tea stained paper. So I had to do it my own way. I just printed them b&w, cut them out, crumpled them up really good, layed out and brushed some distress ink over various parts of it. I used:

Then I just used gloss modge podge and glued them to the jars. I had a HARD time finding corks, finally found them at Hobby Lobby...that place has everything, and I should've just gone there in the first place. Fill jars with water and food coloring...experiment and you can come up with some cool colors. Some of the smaller jars in front I got at Walmart, bigger ones at Hobby Lobby and the rest I had saved from old soy sauce and spaghetti sauce jars. Two I bought with labels already on them.

Shots at day time, then night time with the black lights....gives it more of an eerie look. Love it! I put in a black light that shines right over the mantle also.

Eyeballs in jar and Skull head make a great touch!

I wanted to make som spooky spell books to put next to them but I'm running out of time! Maybe next year.

Halloween advent calendar

My sister and I were browsing around Gardner's village one day and saw a cute advent calendar and thought it would make a fun project! Cute, yes. Fun....eh, maybe if I had a pattern of what to do. I had to figure out on my own how to do everything, making it look not so professional, but hey I tried my best, if I made another one, which I won't, it would def. look better than this one. But for wingin' it, I'd say it's not too shabby....just don't look too closely. :)

I wouldn't expect anyone but me to notice that this skeleton is MINE! :) Remember my skully I made for last year's Halloween digi kit? Yup, that's him! I've got to do a post alone on how to cut out fabric with your cricut! It's so much fun! Or maybe everyone already knows how to do it and I'm comin on board late.

So, because I was trying to figure out what I was doing as I went along, I did not take any pictures or write down how to do it, but if anyone is just itchin to make one, I can help my sister finish hers and use hers as the tutorial, now that I sorta know more what I'm doing. :)

Can't wait to fill these pockets up with yummy treats.....and just hope Faith doesn't find them and eat them all in one day! :)

Fall branches

Wanna hear a kinda funny story? Well, I'm gonna tell it anyways. ;)

I saw this picture below and thought it would be so cool to have some branches to do that with! So I convince my sister how cool it would be and we make a trip up the canyons together. She brought her big tree choppers (that's the technical name) and we started chopping down some sweet lookin branches that we were already envisioning where to put at our house.

I risk life and limb (ok, maybe just my flimsy sandals) to cut down some gnarly ones and we make a big pile next to our car. We really didn't cut down a whole lot, we found a lot on the ground that had already been broken off. So, along comes a forest ranger, who no doubt was told by some "tattle tell" driving by, to ask what we were up to. As he first got out of his car, I was back in the trees and immediately dropped the choppers and let them slide down out of sight, and walk towards Tammy acting like I was just enjoying the view....of course he could see the big pile of branches next to our car and said that we're not supposed to be cutting down branches. Pretending I would do no such thing I asked, "what about the branches that are already on the ground?" He replied that we could take those for firewood at our campsite but couldn't take them out of the canyon or we would get a ticket. That wasn't worth it to us so we waited for him to drive out of sight and then I slipped down the hill to grab the choppers and we were off, leaving our big batch of decorations. :)

Tammy and I were both shaking. hahah yea, we'd make horrible criminals. Here we are, how old? and were getting in trouble just like we did in our teen years, and had children in tow. We laughed and laughed.

I tell you, where is the justice. Where else am I supposed to get my branches to decorate with?! :)

So.... of course that didn't stop us. The next day we used our common sense and went up a canyon that had next to nobody there....and definitely no forest rangers. My brother came this time and we drove while he chopped down our branches of choice, stuffed them in the van and within an hour we had enough gorgeous fall branches for both Tam and I to use.

I have them inside for now but when I get down to serious business putting up all my Halloween decor, then my front porch is gonna look something like the first picture, hopefully.

Aren't they just beautiful?! It adds a nice touch and feel to our home. Now, I just hope that no forest rangers are reading my blog...shhhhh ;)

Pumpkin Clip

I guess this is the start of all the Halloween/fall goodness; let the fun begin! :)

I was out shopping and saw a pillow that had a rolled fabric flower on it that looked like a pumpkin and I thought, "How cute would that be in Faith's hair!" She can look cute and festive at the same time. Fun, ya?! :)

Spooktacular Party!

This is our second year throwing our Halloween party, and it just keeps getting more fun!

I was closer than a gnat's eye to having to cancel the party due to me being sick the whole week. Luckily I recovered just in the nick of time...literally, 3 hours before the party I finally regained back all my strength and energy! Hallelujah!

Host and Hostesses: Bumble Bee, Vindow Vasher (ever heard of that Halloween joke?), Punk Witch, Lady Bug and Candy Corn!

Our guests: Hippy, 2 witches, Flapper girl, Jack O. (reminded my mom and I of jack Nicholson....that guy has one creeeepy lookin face), family of Supa's (the backs of the capes had their initials!), Marilyn, Lion, J.F.K., Scooby Dooby Dooooo, Tink, Pirate, Spidey meets wolfey(wicked sweet paint job), Tiffany and Kevin (scariest costume =) We missed Trent and his fam.!

There was lots of spooky good food and entertainment:

Bingo, Halloween Pictionary, Scary Sounds story, Donut Hang, Karaoke and dancin'!

For the "Guess how many" in a jar, my cousin Delaina got it right guessing 120......there were 119! Nice!

Everyone did such a great job with their costumes! I love seeing the creativity! The whole night was a smashing success, thanks to all of you who came! I had so much fun and I'm already looking forward to next year's party!

Witches Night Out!

It's been a tradition for many years to go to Gardner's Historic Village for their Scarecrow Festival. They had thee best scones and the atmosphere was always fun there....it always is at any time! Well several years ago, they moved the Festival which is now at Thanksgiving Point. Still fun, but not quite the same. Gardner's started a witches night out though, which I've gone to for a while, but this is the first year we all went dressed up! Oh man, it was SO much fun!! I haven't had that much fun for a while. It was perfect weather! We busted out our moves and grooves and danced the night away til our feet got sorely sore. Reminded me of high school dances. =)

We were a sweet lookin group! Totally funkified, love it! If you're gonna dress up, might as well go all the way, eh! If I haven't mentioned it yet, I LOVE to dress up! That's partly why I love Halloween so much. I had a few people ask to take my picture, pretty fun! There were soooooooo many (and I mean a lot) witches there and it was awesome to see all the creativity of people. I wish I would've gotten a picture of a few funny ones...one had a pumpkin bra which actually kinda scared me. haha The witches (er, Ladies) in charge were my favorite though. Wish I had a costume like that! I am so looking forward to next year! If you haven't been to this, I highly recommend you do so next year!

Pumpkin Fun!

So.......things keep coming up and then I got sick; tis the explanation for my longer than usual absence. But watch out, cuz I'm gonna overload with posts now. muahaha =)

We had some pumpkin carving fun with Tim's fam last Friday. I love the tradition of carving pumpkins. Tim did a sideways smiley face, Faithy colored on hers and loved it, Maria did.....some sort of face. The messed up eyes was my fault, I tried to help pound out the eye and ended up making a big hole instead, but she made it look cute. Mikkie ate pumpkin seeds off the ground and I did a polka dot pumpkin (holes did not go all the way through-just cut deep enough for the light to glow through.) I used a melon baller to scoop out the circles. Word to the wise....use gloves when doing it; pumpkins are a lot harder to puncture then watermelon. I have 4 blisters to prove it! Ouch! Also, hold it close to the scooper rather than in the middle, or like me you'll break off the scooper. Good thing it is 2 sided!

Those black pumpkins we did a week earlier. I used black chalkboard spray paint. I LOVE it! Great idea whoever thought of that. It rained that night and ended up washing off the chalk, but it still looks cool plain black.

Everyone did an awesome job on their pumpkins, they turned out great! I love seeing what everyone comes up with. My favorite part was seeing them all lit up outside! Or in Faithy's case, enjoying her colorful artwork on hers.

Got some silver spray paint at craft store and love how the pumpkins look. Very metallic looking. my friend Krista came over couple days ago and carved the neat looking silver 'tin man'. pretty creative.

Anotha' Halloween Freebie!

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have left comments! Along with people I know, there have also been lots of new comers that have left some very kind thoughts, and I just want you to know that you totally make my day and it motivates me to make more kits for you!

With Halloween being one of my very favorite holidays, I couldn't just make one kit. Hope you enjoy this one too! Stay tuned for a very cute Fall/Thanksgiving Kit coming soonly soon! =)

New addition to family and Halloween decor

No, the new addition is not a baby (I would have had to be reeeeeeeeeally sneaky to pull that one off with no one knowing!haha) and it's not a pet (yet ;) We are excited to have Maria, a friend of my family, live with us! She's 11 years old and is a great girl and absolutely loves to play with our girlies. It's a new experience having a kid in school already, but thank goodness her track doesn't start til 9:30! The girls are continuing to out number the boys in our fam....4 to 1 now, hah! Go girls! =)

Does anyone else like to dry their roses and decorate with them? Well, I do; I didn't want to pack them away but they don't quite blend in with the holiday decor surrounding it, so........................ I spray painted them black to add a nice touch for Halloween! Love it. Need some more roses to dry after this........... HINT HINT to my hubby.... hehe ;)

Halloween banner

I've seen a lot of these banners all around, but it really striked my interest when I saw it at Gardner's. So, I got some of their cute fabric while I was there and came home and made one...really, very easy! Supa cute too!

Most of the one's I've seen, they sewed binding on the top, but it's expensive so I just used black rick rack and sewed it on as I went along each triangle. Much easier in my opinion.

Freebie Halloween kit!

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Scrappin' time again! I was hoping to get this out sooner (I even have another Halloween and Fall kit too) but better now than never, eh!

I love these classic Halloween colors, but making a Halloween kit was a little too broad so I decided to narrow this kit down to witchies and spideys. Spiders are not at all my very favorite things (just ask Tim) but somehow they're just cute when cartoonized.

Enjoy!!

Free for personal use only.

Halloween jars

I'm lovin all these fun ideas for Halloween decorations that I'm finding! I've been wanting to try these for a while and just finished them. There's some other variations of them that I'm wanting to try. Another fun, easy, cute idea to make your home that much more festive for Halloween!

I was too lazy to make my own tutorial, so use this great one. =)

Pretty cool, eh!